


Triple Treat

by vinegardog



Category: Farscape
Genre: F/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-10 16:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/788105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinegardog/pseuds/vinegardog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John surprises Aeryn</p>
            </blockquote>





	Triple Treat

Set about 3 cycles after PKWars, somewhere out there in the Uncharted Territories. 

No spoilers of any relevance apart maybe from Terra Firma.

Rated: PG

Warning – Unadulterated fluff – probably the fluffiest I have ever written – my excuse is that after the angst of the fic I wrote for SC63, this was somewhat cathartic! 

Disclaimer: Characters not mine, never mine!

Word Count 3520

My thanks to A Damned Scientist for being, as always, a great beta. Thanks, ADS, for your time, support and great suggestions.

Triple Treat (PG)

“So you and Moya found it! Well done, Pilot, you are both geniuses!”

John’s eager voice reached Pilot about 5 microts before the human’s body came bounding enthusiastically into view through the Den’s portal.

Pilot warily followed John’s advance towards him, barely restrained himself from sighing and again attempted to explain : “I did NOT say we found it, Commander, I said we MIGHT have found it and that I would comm you when further investigations were completed!”

“But you think you found it, right? Which means you obviously did. Well done, man! I owe you!” By now, John had reached Pilot’s console where, after a graceful, energetic single leap, he was now sitting swinging his legs and innocently, but very annoyingly, banging the heel of his boots rhythmically against the side of it with barely contained excitement, a big happy grin lighting up his face.

Pilot had genuinely no idea how John could actually hear one thing - the one he wanted to hear - when he had just been clearly told another. With his patience now wearing thinner than thin, he clearly enunciated, as if clear enunciation could help in the matter of this human’s understanding: “Commander, you are a very strange being. What I said is that we MIGHT have found it. Moya’s long range scans show that there MIGHT be a planet in this system that meets the very detailed parameters you gave us, HOWEVER it will be at least another half an arn before we are close enough to be able to verify that with any certainty, so please go away and leave us alone! For the sixth time today, I repeat: I will comm you when the final analysis corroborates or disproves our suspicions!”

With his smile undimmed by Pilot’s barely heard protestations, John continued with his train of thought: “Now that you have found it, I can really get down to finalising the nitty gritty…ahem…the essential details.“ He clarified before he could be asked for an explanation “I need to find Noranti and Chi and put this whole kit and caboodle into motion pronto and then of course I need to mislead Aeryn, so that she doesn’t find out about my plan before it’s time!” 

With a course of action now clearly laid out in his mind, John jumped back down finally stopping the infernal banging. He lifted both thumbs in the direction of poor, confused Pilot and headed back out, this time on the hunt for Noranti and Chiana.  
________________________________________

Having commed both and been given their whereabouts, John thought it a serendipitously good omen for the success of his surprise that both of them were at that point in time in Centre Chamber busy preparing food for Third Meal.

Again, John’s cheerful voice reached them before they could actually see him. 

“Hello beautiful ladies! How are we doing on this fine day?”

Both Chiana and Noranti stopped in their tracks and looked up. This extravagantly put question was over the top even for the fahrbot human, so, when he finally sauntered in and joined them at the counter in the centre of the room, Chiana lifted a hand and stopped him from spouting any further nonsense: “What do you want, Crichton?”

“Hey, can’t a guy show appreciation for two of the finest looking gals this side of the galaxy? My two favourite ones, I might add, after my very own wife!” This time the words were accompanied by a charming lady-killer smile, the one he normally employed to get around Aeryn when she was being difficult about something. His smile definitely had its desired effect on Noranti, who in return giggled in delight at the compliment, her wrinkly dirt-encrusted hand coyly raised to cover her mouth. The same smile on the other hand had no effect whatsoever on Chiana, who, arms crossed, asked again:

“What do you want, Crichton?”

“Okay, you know how I have been planning a surprise for Aeryn, right? Pilot and Moya have been helping me and it looks like we have finally found the perfect spot!” He eagerly looked from one to the other expecting and receiving more and less enthusiastic nods respectively from the two women, encouraging him to carry on “Now, all I need is for you, Granny, to pack me a picnic basket with a couple of blankets and with some of Aeryn’s favourite foods and maybe a bottle of buzz or two. Easy, right? And for you, Chi, to mind D for us for a couple of arns. That’s not too much to ask, is it now? Granny? Chi? For me? For Aeryn?” The plea was accompanied by the best puppy-eyed look he could muster, one even the fluffiest Spaniel pup would have been proud of.

“A pick a nit basket coming right up!” Noranti beamed scurrying to the pantry and looking around for the eatables Aeryn seemed to enjoy most at meal time.

Chiana, noncommittally, continued to stare John down for another couple of microts even though, to tell the truth, minding D was not really a chore. She loved the little mischievous brat as if he was her own, so after keeping John in suspense for a moment longer just for the fun of it, she eventually gave in: 

“Fine, yeah. I will mind D, but you owe me Old Man!”

“Alright!” John shouted jumping in the air and pumping his fist with joy. He then grabbed Chiana and twirled her around the floor in a bear hug that almost dislodged a couple of her ribs. “I knew you would do it, Chi! I just know that behind that tough chick façade of yours, you are the sweetest of the sweet!” He finally put her back down and jokingly held her and tickled her to make her laugh.

“You really are strange, Crichton! Stop…stop that immediately!” she squealed while finally managing to squirm out of his grasp and running around the counter to get away from him. “Aeryn is even braver than I thought in putting up with you day in, day out, you know that? You are…you are the strangest frellnik I have ever met!”

____________________

Two arns later, after finally getting confirmation from Pilot that the planet they were approaching was indeed exactly what he had been looking for and having located the perfect isolated spot away from any signs of inhabited centres, John finally managed to get Aeryn to one of Moya’s pods. She had been dragging her feet, checking and counter-checking the shopping list she had been compiling having been told by John that this was just a run of the mill restocking trip to a commerce planet. That lie had been diligently repeated to her by Pilot, Chiana and Noranti and at that point had her totally fooled.

“Aeryn, can you please hurry up? We are going to be late!” John, one hand splayed against the middle of her back, encouraged her up the steep steps of the pod in an attempt to make her move faster, which only accomplished exactly the opposite when she stopped and turned around asking:

“What is the rush, John? The commerce planet will still be there…” She thought about his exact words and questioned him in more detail: “Late for what? And what is that basket you are carrying?”

“Aeryn, honey, I just want to get this boring chore over with!” John lied, quickly trying to think of a good enough excuse for his haste. “The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll get back to D!” 

Aeryn, who had just about resumed ascending the steps, stopped once again causing John to bump into her back for the second time in the last 20 microts.

“Now what?” He snapped. Had he been wearing a watch, he would have been looking frantically at it. She slowly semi- turned and gave him a withering look in response to his abruptness. “You still have not answered me, John. What is in that basket?”

Smiling apologetically at her for his brusqueness, although still with a touch of barely concealed impatience, he tried to play the blasted basket’s presence down “Aer, it’s nothing, just an empty basked Granny asked me to fill with bits and pieces which might get damaged if stored in the pod’s container, that’s all, I promise! Can we go now?”

After giving him a long suspicious look, met by his own most innocent one possible, she finally turned back and boarded the pod. As she always did, Aeryn headed straight for the main pilot seat, but John, following closely, managed to scramble around her and plunk himself in it a split microt sooner so that she almost ended up sitting in his lap. Again, she looked at him with a mixture of suspicion and annoyance but when he nonchalantly said: ”I feel like driving, hon, do you mind?” she decided that there was no point in arguing over such a trivial matter. Even after so many cycles together, his quirks still baffled her and she was pretty sure they would until the very end of their lives. Taking the high road once again she just shook her head and muttered: 

“John, sometimes you are damn strange!” after which she proceeded to sit in the co-pilot seat.

“I know I can be, babe! Not gonna change at my age!” He winked and grinned wickedly at her before powering up the pod and finally leaving Moya. 

All through the brief journey down to the planet, John kept glancing at the pod controls making adjustments, increasing speed and generally squirming around in his seat unable to contain his excitement as well as mentally praying that Aeryn would not smell a rat too soon and start pestering him with awkward questions.

“John?” when the calling of his name failed to break his nervy concentration, she raised her voice and tried once more “John! What is wrong with you today? You look like…like you have pants in your ants!” She ended in English, hoping that the Earth expression would impress him enough to finally make him pay her question some proper attention.

All it provoked however was a great big bark of a laugh from John, followed by “That’s ants in your pants, honey, ants in your pants! You are so cute when you frell up my sayings! And yes, I do have ants in my pants, I’m excited!”

In two minds as to whether to be offended for being laughed at or share in John’s amusement, she finally settled on a stern but affectionate tone of voice:

“John, you know you can tell me anything, please tell me what’s going on. Are we really going to a commerce planet?”

Maddeningly, however, he once again evaded her question and said: “You know what, Aeryn? You are as smart as you are beautiful! I love you!” 

“John, I know you love me but your telling me is not going to work as a distraction. I want to know where we are going and I want to know now!”

“Patience, Aeryn, patience! All will be revealed really soon, I promise! We are almost there!”

True to his word, a couple of microts later John expertly manoeuvred the pod for the final approach and almost without a single shake or vibration settled the craft down onto the surface of the planet. Delighted with his faultless landing, he turned to Aeryn with a big grin 

“Here we go, m’lady, we have arrived!” 

His gleeful expression was so contagious that Aeryn could not stop herself from smiling along even though she had no idea why. Ruefully she thought to herself ‘Every time! This man manages to make me smile every frelling time he puts his mind to it!’

“Arrived where, John?” She tried, again, to get an explanation. When she had been a Peacekeeper, pleasant surprises were practically unheard of and she had never truly felt at ease with them even now that her life was so different.

“Aeryn, honey, you trust me, right? Now I need you to trust me for another little while. Close your eyes and let me guide you. You do that and I’ll be able to show you instead of telling you!” 

Knowing that further protestations would not work and that his mind was set on whatever it was he was going to surprise her with, she emitted a long sigh, closed her eyes and capitulated: “Fine, I am all yours!”

“Yes, you are and I am the luckiest s.o.b. in the galaxy!”

He then took her hand, helped her stand up and take a step forward, and, positioning himself behind her, he placed his right hand on her right shoulder, grabbed the basket with his left and led her to the exit hatch of the pod.

“Easy does it...here we go, step down, one foot in front of the other…you are doing great babe, don’t forget to keep your eyes closed!” 

Fresh air and the smell of resin from what was obviously an abundance of trees in near proximity assailed Aeryn’s face and nose. And, even though she would have been hard pushed to admit it, all of a sudden a little worm of excitement started wiggling around in her stomach.

After a short walk through what Aeryn guessed might be some sort of shady forest, they emerged back into the evening sunshine. The warmth, tempered by a light fresh scented breeze, was pleasant on her skin and a reminder once again, if she ever needed one, of why John seemed to enjoy their occasional planet forays so much.

A small pressure from John’s hand on her shoulder finally told her to stop and, although the temptation to open her eyes had become almost irresistible, she steeled her will and waited for further instructions.

She felt John’s right hand lift from her body, heard him drop the basket at their feet and immediately afterwards she felt the really close, gentle tickle of his breath against her neck and ear, which instantly gave her goose bumps from head to toe. She then felt the renewed touch of his hands on her shoulders.

For a long, languorous moment, John massaged her, melting away from her neck muscles the tension she had not realised she had been feeling from John’s mysterious behaviour. A low moan of pleasure escaped her lips and her head tilted back to rest against him in total abandon. They stood like that for some time, then, she felt him slowly slip his hands from her shoulders in a long caress down her bare arms until her lithe frame was safely and completely encircled in his wide embrace, his front flush to her back.

Aeryn would have been happy to stand like that for a very long time, if not forever, but finally his low, gravelly voice broke the spell when he whispered in her ear: “You can open your eyes now, honey!” 

She did as she was told and took in the surroundings. They were standing on a rocky bluff jutting out on a large body of water, an ocean or a large lake extending as far as the eye could see. Three suns were shining orange bright on the horizon in the gentle waning of the day. A light breeze among the leaves of the trees in the forest at their back played a mesmerising rustling melody, the perfect accompaniment to the moment.

Aeryn drank it all in in silence and although she certainly appreciated the intrinsic beauty of it, she was uncertain as to what exactly John had wanted her to see

“John, this is…this is really pretty but what exactly am I looking at?”

“You are about to see a triple sunset, baby! A triple one! See?” He pointed at the three suns low in the sky “The slight misalignment of these three stars means that this planet gets a triple sunset every day. A triple treat, Aeryn! Instead of just a few hundred microts, the suns will take over two arns to set. Two arns of glorious sunset before darkness descends!”

“And what is so special about a 2 arn long sunset, John?” Aeryn could feel his body vibrate against hers and she really, really wanted to share in his awe, see this moment with the same wide-eyed sense of wonder he was experiencing.

In a low, intimate voice he started to explain: “Back on Earth, most people consider sunsets really romantic, babe. Since those very early days when we first met and I was telling you all about the many beauties of my planet during our arns-long chats on Moya, I always envisaged one day bringing you back there, sharing some of those beauties with you, seeing them anew through your eyes and a sunset was definitely high up on that list.” He paused for a beat gathering his thoughts to make it as clear as he could to her how he felt, then continued “But when we eventually got there, three cycles ago, we never got the chance to actually share any of those beauties, including a sunset, even though I’d have loved that more than anything…” his voice wistfully trailed away at the thought of the missed chances.

“And whose fault was that, John?” Aeryn murmured, amusement more than resentment seeping through her words.

“Mine! Totally, completely, utterly mine! I was a right frellwit, Aer, and that’s why I am trying to make up for that a little today by bringing you here and having you all to myself…” He gently rested his chin on her shoulder close to the delicate swirl of her ear, almost touching it but not quite and in an even lower, drawly tone of voice he suggestively continued “I thought we might spread out a blanket, have something to eat, maybe a beer…”

“Fellip nectar” she absentmindedly corrected him, her attention very much focused on his hands playing under her vest along her bare stomach.

“Yeah, a fellip nectar” he continued as if she had never interrupted “Then we could make out for a bit…and just see where that takes us…are you game for it, Mrs Crichton?”

Aeryn leaned back even further into him, seductively pressing her leather clad behind against his fast awakening below-the-waist front, before purring: “Mmhm, John Crichton you know perfectly well where making out normally leads us…but did I hear you right? You did say these sunsets will last over two arns, right?” She asked before turning her head, looking straight into his sky blue eyes and meeting his lips with her own.

_____________________________

Three arns later, the pod landed back on Moya. 

John and Aeryn emerged holding hands and playfully bumping each other’s hips while descending the stairs only to find Chiana waiting for them, arms crossed, an affectionate smirk on her face.

“Hey, Pip? How’re things? Is D alright?” John asked her when he finally managed to tear his eyes away from Aeryn.

“D is fine. He is fast asleep in my bed. We played for a while and after that he was out like a light.” She reassured both of them.

John turned to Aeryn, winked, gave her hand a last quick squeeze before letting it go and approached Chiana.

“Thanks, Chi, you are a star. I’m gonna bring this” he lifted the hand carrying the still intact picnic basket to show her, “back to Centre Chamber and then I’m gonna get D and bring him back to our quarters. Next time you need anything, I’m your man, I owe you!” He lightly kissed her forehead as a thank you before heading for the door. His parting words were directed to his wife: “Honey, I’ll see you in a few microts, don’t start wandering around Moya checking on everything. They seem to have managed without us just fine!”

Chiana, now left alone with Aeryn, impishly studied the far away, dreamy look on the Sebacean’s face before asking:

So how was it? Was this triple sunset Crichton planned to surprise you with worth all the…all the fussing and secrecy he put us through?”

Aeryn’s eyes finally focused on her young friend’s face and with a hint of a smile she replied: “It was nice…it was…romantic...”

Her answer was interrupted by a great hearty laugh from Chiana who could not help but teasing her:

“Aeryn, I never thought I would hear you use that word, let alone about a celestial event as mundane as a sunset…or even three. Hanging around with Crichton for so long has really affected your perspectives!”

Staring intently at her with an intentionally put-upon stern expression, Aeryn let Chiana’s hilarity calm down before answering in a serious tone of voice

“Well, it WAS a triple treat, as John called it, and each one of the three was pretty spectacular in its own right.”

Chiana took in Aeryn’s severe expression, which was now slowly fraying at the edges and revealing the real underlying happiness and satisfaction she was feeling and all of a sudden the true meaning of her words hit home with the Nebari

“Aeryn, we are…we are not talking about sunsets any more, are we?” She asked with amusement in a sing-song tone of voice.

“No, Chiana, we are not.” Aeryn concurred and finally unleashed that singular blinding smile of hers, the more stunning because of its rarity, the one that made most people smile along with pleasure at its sight, the very one that always did and always would make John Crichton go weak at the knees.

“And, if you don’t mind, I think I will go to bed now, Chi. I am tired.” She lightly caressed the Nebari’s cheek in an affectionate gesture in passing while on her way out of the cargo bay and intentionally ignored the last giggled comment made in the direction of her retreating back:

“No wonder, you’re tired, Aeryn! A triple treat like that would wear out the best of us!”

Now alone in the room, Chiana, still highly amused, muttered to herself: “Way to go, Old Man!” before buoyantly heading to bed herself, her heart filled with joy for having contributed even in the smallest of ways to her friends’ happy interlude.

The end


End file.
